Environment

Democratic Republic of Congo's oil minister on Thursday defended the country's right to explore for oil anywhere on its territory after media reports that President Joseph Kabila approved drilling in Africa's

Judiciary said Iranian-Canadian professor was a Mossad agent who committed suicide in prison, though his family dispute this. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
UN officials have urged the Iranian government

The Environmental Protection Agency levied around half the average number of penalties against polluters in the first year of the Trump administration as in the same period of the past three presidential

Authorities in the Greater Horn of Africa (GHA), including Tanzania, have been advised to take precaution against predicted floods in some countries in the region, due to normal and above normal rainfall

Maputo - Mozambique authorities on Wednesday introduced water rationing to more than a million residents in the capital Maputo due to a severe drought.
The city is cutting the water supply to consumers

A team of researchers have built an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system that can detect earthquakes faster than any other existing devices.
Engineers from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute

French renewable energy producer, Voltalia has obtained permits for the development of two hydropower plants with a capacity of 9.8MW and 7.2MW, respectively in Morocco.
This was revealed during a Photovoltaica

The Mauritius Ministry of Energy and Public Utilities has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Italian Ministry of Environment, Land and Sea, for cooperation in renewable energy and energy

The global wind energy industry enjoyed another strong year in 2017, installing a total of 52,573 megawatts worth of new wind capacity, increasing the global cumulative installed capacity up to 539,581

Food Policy

Tucked away on the University of Bangui campus in the capital of Central African Republic, a portacabin surrounded by palm trees shelters neat rows of test-tubes filled with green shoots.
Here scientists

The United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization says prolonged dry spells, erratic rainfall, high temperatures and the presence of the voracious fall armyworm have significantly dampened Southern

Abuja — Despite budgetary allocations towards tackling the menace of malnutrition and the constant on-going enlightenment on the need for proper nutrition in the early stages of a child's life, the spate

The Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis on Thursday allocated 515 million U.S. dollars to support Mozambique’s combat against the three infectious diseases, the leading cause of deaths

An international charity warned on Monday that 4.7 million children across East Africa risk dropping out of school this year due to malnutrition arising from displacement sparked by drought and conflict.

Climate Change

The limited engagement of the private sector is a major barrier to developing innovative and scalable climate adaptation solutions in West Africa, Mr Komlan Messie, General Secretary, West Africa Civil

New research shows that the removal of subsidies would lead to bigger emissions reductions in oil and gas exporting regions, such as Russia, Latin America and the Middle East, than promised by their Paris

The individual commitments made by parties of the United Nations Paris Agreement are not enough to fulfill the agreement's overall goal of limiting global temperature rise to less than 2 degrees Celsius

In 2016, US TV network news coverage of climate change plummeted. News coverage was focused on the presidential election, but the corporate broadcast networks didn’t air a single segment informing viewers

Pesticides And Toxins

Amazon.com Inc will pay a $1.2 million (852,999.72 pounds) penalty to settle nearly 4,000 alleged violations of U.S. law in a move to prevent harmful exposure to pesticides through illegal sales, the U.S.

Air Pollution

Heavy air pollution caused by haze and dust particles in Iran's southwestern city of Ahvaz, Khuzestan Province, has surged to 60 times above safe levels, crossing the "hazardous" level, in which the entire

German ministers have announced that free public transportation will be trialled in five cities by "the end of this year at the latest" in an effort to reduce road traffic, meet EU air pollution targets

Forests

When Malaysia’s biggest plantation company Sime Darby leased 220,000 hectares of lush forest in northwest Liberia in 2009, executives said they had found a much needed new frontier in global palm oil development.

Phalombe District Council in collaboration with a local Non- Governmental Organization (NGO) DUnited Purpose (UP) on Wednesday launched the 2017/18 district tree planting season with hope of planting a

A national forum which opened in Yaounde, Tuesday February 13, 2018, seeks to redynamise efforts to ensure the sustainable use of forest resources in Central Africa.
Conflict of leadership and interest

The Egyptian government announced on Tuesday that it will not sell the land of the Petrified Forest Protected Area in New Cairo, according to a report issued by the Information and Decision Support Centre.

Carbon emissions from the Brazilian Amazon are increasingly dominated by forest fires during extreme droughts rather than by emissions from fires directly associated with the deforestation process, according

Wildlife

Four mammals – including the northern hairy-nosed wombat and the numbat – have been upgraded to endangered or critically endangered on the updated Australian threatened species list published on Thursday.

Female orangutans are occasionally killed for their young, which are sold on as pets, while others are killed for food or for venturing onto plantations or into gardens.
Hunting and killing have driven

The microscopic eggs of an endangered butterfly have been found in Scotland, suggesting the insect has returned to breed in the country for the first time in more than 130 years.
Guardian Today: the headlines,

Mining

Hearings have wrapped in Sierra Leone from claimants accusing mining company Tonkolili Iron Ore of human rights abuses. The allegations against the company, formerly a subsidiary of African Minerals Limited